Storytelling through Yoga

Awakening Gifts of Inanna is a yoga dance which was created for Maren Hansen's course, Myth and Psychological Development, at Pacifica Graduate Institute. This yoga dance depicts Inanna's acceptance and placement of Me, the holy laws and her birth-rite, upon the seven major energy chakras of her body. She adorns herself with the grasslands at her 7th crown chakra, her locks and the eye ointment of "come man, come" on her 6th wisdom eye. Inanna places two stands of lapis necklaces, one at her 5th throat center, and one at her 4th heart center. Inner agency is worn at her 3rd center, the solar plexus, the breastplate of fierceness. At her 2nd charka, located as the creative center below the navel, she places bracelets upon her wrists. Finally, the 1st root chakra, she connects the full length of her spine with the lapis rod and sounding line. Upon all the placement of Me, she accepts and takes her place as queen of the heavens and earth.

The second half of the dance initiates Inanna in the realm of the underworld. She heeds the call to descend and must pass through each of the seven gates of the underworld. At each level she knocks and inquires why she must let go. With each question, the gate keeper, Neti, replies, "Inanna, The ways of the underworld are perfect, do not question." As she is required to remove one piece of the physical Me for each level she descends, she absorbs the symbolic energy of the Me into her body tissues until she completely releases into absolute nakedness and vulnerability. In the belly of the underworld, Inanna succumbs to death for three days until she is resurrected with the aid of her father and is returned to life as Queen of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld. She gained full knowledge of the aspects of life, death, and renewal.

Inanna's life and death are not separate from our own but rather demonstrates that there are times for necessary letting go and times for renewal on every front of psychological and material existence. As she strips off the Me, she gains its energy and births some new possibility that resided in her body psyche all along. This myth reminds each of us that in moments of pure surrender, energy will eventually spark new life, new ideas, and will mentor each of us through the true integration of wisdom.

Frog Prince and the Divine MarriageThis yoga dance was created for the Joseph Campbell, Archetype and Myth course taught by Jim Kline at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The dance demonstrates the transformation of the feminine psyche through the fairy tale of The Frog Prince the feminine principle maturing through the engagement of her masculine animus. The dance and the story begin with the immature feminine principle, the princess, playing carelessly with a golden ball, her soul. She drops it down the well into the realm of the unconscious and becomes quite distressed. A frog approaches here, the symbol of the masculine principle, and offers to retrieve her golden ball in exchange for living in her castle, eating from her table, and sleeping in her bed. She hastily agrees. The frog, still in his immature state and needing of her feminine principle to evolve, digs deep into the muck of the well and unearths her soul. With her golden ball in hand, she runs home, not looking back, with no intention to honor her promise. But like all good shadow figures, the frog follows and demands her to honor her commitment. She reluctantly allows him into the castle, she is sickened when he eats her food, and when he came to sleep in her bed, she was so repulsed that she threw him violently against the wall - breaking a curse and releasing his pure essence and they fell in loved, embraced and integrated each other in the divine marriage. The Frog Prince demonstrates that even the aspects within ourselves that we find "repulsive" can be be transformed into love through self-assertion. But one cannot rush maturity, and the tantrum of cracking the frog open contains the paradox of the princess’ old self, her immaturity, as well as her budding new self in maturit. This tale speaks of the unconscious maturing the consciousness and the necessity of the feminine to assertively claim her own personal agency in her unfolding of the feminine psyche. She matured because of his aid and insistence. He matured through her fierceness.

Demeter and Persephone - Forced DescentThis yoga dance was created for my Mythodrama class with Priscilla Taylor at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Through movement I demonstrate the forced descent (or rape of) Persephone from the upper realms into the underworld. This myth addresses the emotions of unexpected loss and suffering as well as the the confusion, re-discovering, and re-defining of self that is required to transform through grief. The dance is a circular mandala. The first direction depicts Persephone's innocence smelling the narcissus flowers and her unexpected abduction into the underworld withe the struggle and turmoil of body being taken over by a force beyond herself. The second direction has her wandering and searching in the underworld until she comes to know her self in clarity on a new level and claims her queen-ship as goddess of the underworld. The third direction begins Demeter's story, her realization that Persephone is missing, her search, and her grief when she discovers her loss. The fourth direction shows Demeter's confusion and her taking a mortal child to her breast, attempting to transform the child through fire until she is caught and rejects the child. In that moment she remembers her goddess self and reclaims it, demanding from Zeus her daughter's return. Demeter then lifts Persephone from the underworld. The final direction, dances a balance pose and a closing flow symbolizing the harmony of the upper and lower worlds and the reunion of Demeter and Persephone. The dance ends where it began, something lost, parts transformed, and souls renewed.Persephone's ChoiceThis yoga dance was created for my Mythodrama class with Pricilla Taylor at Pacifica Graduate Institute. The dance is a circular mandala depicting Persephone's choice to leave her mother, Demeter, and the upperworld in order to descend to the underworld, surrender herself, usher the newly dead, and claim that realm as her queendom. The first half circle of the mat dances Persephone's union with her mother, their voluntary kiss goodby and the desend of Persephone's personal release and transformatio process, coming to know her own cycle and powers. The second half of the circle shows her opening the gates of the underworld, inviting in the dead, initiating them across their foreheads with her menstrual blood (aka pomegranate seeds) and blessing them with wisdom and tranquility. At completion of the circle, Persephone ends where she began, but now completely transformed and crowned as goddess in her own rite. She rises again to be reunited with her mother Demeter, both transformed separate but whole.